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"Easy," I said. "He's a friend, you lump of coal."

The sound in his chest died. The ridge along his spine dropped flat, the ember light sinking back to its usual simmer, though his eyes stayed on Dax a moment longer before he decided the stranger wasn't worth getting up for.

"That her?"

"That's her."

Dax's eyebrows went up, the kind of look a man gives someone who doesn't match what he's been told. Word around the academy called her a Healer, nothing more specific than that, and healers didn't usually stand there resetting a stance, weight forward, already sized up for a fight before anyone said a word.

The back door opened before I had to answer anything else. Corian came out first, then Nykos with a mug of something in his hand, then Halver, who took one look at Dax's bag and asked, "Sparring gear or teaching gear?"

"Depends who's asking."

Corian reached him first and clapped him on the shoulder, the kind of grip that said more than most people's whole conversations did. "You look terrible."

"Marking exams does that to a man."

"You could quit."

"And give my father the satisfaction of saying the Citadel spat me back out? Never."

Nykos didn't say anything, just handed Dax the mug he'd been carrying without being asked, which was as close to affection as Nykos got with anyone who wasn't already family. Dax took it and drank half of it before making a face.

"That's disgusting."

"It's tea."

"It's punishment."

"Drink it anyway."

Dax did, still pulling a face with every swallow, and that told me everything about where he stood with the four of us.

We'd known Dax since basic training, back when none of us could hold a blade properly and he already could. Squads form themselves in basic, trainees breaking off into groups over months of shared misery until something sticks, but the four of us walked in already fused together, years of the same palace tutoring room behind us before anyone handed us a training yard. There was never a real gap for him to fill. He trained beside us the whole way through, sparred with us, ate at our table more nights than not, and still ended up on the outside once everyone else paired off into something permanent. When basic ended and every other trainee walked into a squad with his name already on the roster, Dax walked into an empty file. The Citadel solved the problem the way it solved most problems it didn't understand. They made him a Master.

Youngest one they'd ever appointed.

Corian had offered him a spot with us twice that I knew of, once right after basic and once a few years after, both times phrased carefully enough that saying no wouldn't cost him anything. Both times Dax turned it down flat, no hesitation, like the answer had been sitting ready in his mouth before Corian finished asking. He never gave a reason either time, and none of us pushed hard enough to get one out of him.

I'd never worked out why. Still hadn't.

I'd always thought there was something lonely in that, though I'd never said it to his face. A man who'd trained beside half the Citadel and still went home most nights to a room with nobody in it, close enough to borrow a mug of tea off a squad that wasn't his, never quite close enough to be handed a key.

Jade had stopped throwing. She stood with the last knife loose in her hand, watching the five of us with the particular stillness she used whenever a new person entered a space she'd already mapped out. Not fear. Calculation. I'd learned the difference the hard way, mostly by getting it wrong the first few weeks and assuming every flat look meant she wanted to be left alone.

Sometimes it did.

More often now, it didn't.

Corian noticed her watching and waved her over. "Jade. This is Dax. Weapons Master at the academy, general nuisance, occasionally useful."

"High praise," Dax said.

Jade crossed the yard at her own pace, knife still in hand until she reached the target and slid it into the row with the others. She didn't offer her hand. Dax didn't reach for it either, which I noted with the kind of interest I usually reserved for tactical decisions.

"Jade," she said.

"I've heard the name a few times." Dax tilted his head, considering her the way he considered a new recruit on the first day of term, sizing up stance before he'd even seen them move. "Word around the academy is you're an Apex Healer."